Thankfully Arch was quickly distracted by someone else, and Gabriel leaned in to apologise. ‘He’s our youngest member. Great on the cello, but not so talented at pacing his drinks. It’s also his first season, so he’s rather needy when it comes to praise.’
Ella laughed and shook her head as she watched the younger man, reminding herself to tell him just how much she’d enjoyed the cello.
‘It must be an amazing feeling, playing for a crowd like that, surrounded by so many other musicians,’ she said. ‘A dream come true, I’m sure.’
‘It is,’ he said, sipping his drink as he looked at her. ‘The hard part is coming down from the high of a performance. It’s impossible to sleep afterwards, which is why so many of us go out to decompress. Although the older members seem so much better at compartmentalising it as work. I see them pack up and leave as if it’s just a regular job, and maybe after years of performing, it does become like that.’
‘Maybe. I’m like that after a big day at work though,’ Ella said, fiddling with the little straw in her glass. ‘I can be so exhausted, but if I went to bed, I’d just lie there for hours, unable to fall asleep, my head spinning with everything that happened during the day.’
‘Gabe!’ A couple came over then and Gabriel raised his eyebrows at her as he grinned. She wasn’t sure what he was trying to tell her, but she almost immediately realised that they were about to be drawn into the fun.
‘Ladies, this is Ella,’ he introduced.
‘Where did you find this one?’ one of the women teased, before leaning in and giving her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. ‘I’m Ruby, and this is Emma.’
‘Lovely to meet you both,’ Ella said. ‘I hope I’m not intruding on your evening by being here.’
‘Intruding?’ Ruby asked. ‘Not a chance, the more the merrier. Did you see the performance tonight?’
‘I did. It was truly spectacular. I can’t wait to come again.’
Someone else came over then and the intense musical conversation went way over Ella’s head. She had no idea what half the words they were saying even meant, so she took the chance to gesture to their drinks when Gabriel looked over at her. She was surprised that there were so many performers in their thirties, although she guessed the younger ones all stuck together.
‘Sorry,’ he mouthed.
Ella just grinned. ‘Another?’ she mouthed back, holding up her glass.
He nodded and she left him to get another gin and tonic for them both. As she waited at the bar, she looked around and noticed how relaxed everyone seemed. She wondered who the others in the crowd were; whether most of them were in fact musicians, or whether there was a blend of customers. It certainly had a very creative kind of vibe.
She was just turning around with the drinks when a hand touched her shoulder. Ella spun round completely and found herself staring into a wall of chest. She looked up and into Gabriel’s eyes.
‘Hi,’ he said.
‘Hi,’ she replied.
Her hands were full, with a drink in each, and she held one up to Gabe.
His shirt was unbuttoned lower than before, his tie completely discarded now and his jacket nowhere to be seen. He took a step closer to her, before ducking his head a little lower, and she found she hadn’t been quite so attracted to a man in…She smiled to herself.As long as I can remember.
‘Finally, we get a moment alone,’ he said, taking a sip and grinning at her over his glass.
‘I meant it before, I hope I’m not—’
He held up his hand. ‘Don’t say it, because you are absolutely not interrupting. I honestly can’t believe it, that after all these years…’
She laughed. ‘I know. And can I be honest and say that I hadn’t thought about you, about those years of my life, for such a long time.’
‘Me neither, but it’s certainly been a pleasant surprise seeing you again and remembering.’
‘When you first left, I wondered how different our lives would become, whether we’d ever cross paths again.’
‘So did life turn out the way you thought it would?’
Ella shrugged. ‘Maybe. I honestly…’ She pushed away thoughts of her brother and how much her life had changed since then, not wanting to tell Gabe yet. ‘I honestly don’t know what I expected from my life back then. I mean, we were so young, what did we know about what we wanted from life?’
She realised the moment she spoke that Gabe was doing exactly what he thought he’d be doing, that he’d followed his dream.
‘Except for you, of course.Youknew precisely who you were and what you wanted to be.’
